Ruptures and repairs of group therapy alliance. an untold story in psychotherapy research

Although previous studies investigated the characteristics of therapeutic alliance in group treatments, there is still a dearth of research on group alliance ruptures and repairs. The model by Safran and Muran was originally developed to address therapeutic alliance in individual therapies, and the usefulness of this approach to group intervention needs to be demonstrated. Alliance ruptures are possible at member to therapist, member to member, member to group levels. Moreover, repairs of ruptures in group are quite complex, i.e., because other group members have to process the rupture even if not directly involved. The aim of the current study is to review the empirical research on group alliance, and to examine whether the rupture repair model can be a suitable framework for clinical understanding and research of the complexity of therapeutic alliance in group treatments. We provide clinical vignettes and commentary to illustrate theoretical and research aspects of therapeutic alliance rupture and repair in groups. Our colleague Jeremy Safran made a substantial contribution to research on therapeutic alliance, and the current paper illustrates the enduring legacy of this work and its potential application to the group therapy context

Short-range correlations in low-lying nuclear excited states

The electromagnetic transitions to various low-lying excited states of 16O, 48Ca and 208Pb are calculated within a model which considers the short-range correlations. In general the effects of the correlations are small and do not explain the required quenching to describe the data.Comment: 6 pages, 2 postscript figures, 1 tabl

Video monitoring of Sparidae temporal rhythms: three-year study by OBSEA cabled observatory

The abundance and composition of fish assemblages varies at different temporal scales as a product of diel and annual rhythms. In this study, we used a video-wired observatory (OBSEA, www.obsea.es) to monitor annual rhythms in a coastal fish assemblage with a 3-year data set (2012-2014). The photographs were acquired at 30 min frequency. Five species of the family Sparidae were studied (i.e. Dentex dentex, Diplodus sargus, Diplodus vulgaris, Diplodus annularis and Diplodus puntazzo) together with water temperature and daylength. The results of the annual rhythmicity analysis indicated that most of the peaks of abundance occured in the autumn months. Results suggest differentially temporal use of the reproductive or trophic niche.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

EFFECTS OF SHIFT WORK ON CARDIOVASCULAR ACTIVITY, SERUM CORTISOL AND WHITE BLOOD CELLS COUNT IN A GROUP OF ITALIAN FISHERMEN

We analyzed the effects of working activity and working shifts on the circadian rhythmicity and circadian phase relations of serum cortisol level, white blood cells count, resting heart rate and systolic/diastolic blood pressure in a group of italian fishermen. We observed a shift-induced displacement of cortisol secretion and a modification in leukocyte count. Moreover, systolic/diastolic blood pressure and resting heart rate were markedly influenced by the night shift, whereas no appreciable changes were observed after the morning and afternoon shifts, compared to pre-working values. These data suggest that the human circadian system is greatly influenced by shift work, and serum cortisol level, leukocyte count, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and resting heart rate are sensitive indicators of the biological responses to a stress workload in shift workers, especially after a night shif

Molecular signature of retinoic acid treatment in acute promyelocytic leukemia

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a distinct subtype of acute myeloid leukemia characterized by a block of differentiation at the promyelocytic stage. APL patients respond to pharmacological concentrations of all-trans retinoic acid ( RA) and disease remission correlates with terminal differentiation of leukemic blasts. The PML/RAR oncogenic transcription factor is responsible for both the pathogenesis of APL and for its sensitivity to RA. In order to identify physiological targets of RA therapy, we analysed gene expression profiles of RA-treated APL blasts and found 1056 common target genes. Comparing these results to those obtained in RA-treated U937 cell lines revealed that transcriptional response to RA is largely dependent on the expression of PML/RAR. Several genes involved in the control of differentiation and stem cell renewal are early targets of RA regulation, and may be important effectors of RA response. Modulation of chromatin modifying genes was also observed, suggesting that specific structural changes in local chromatin domains may be required to promote RA-mediated differentiation. Computational analysis of upstream genomic regions in RA target genes revealed nonrandom distribution of transcription factor binding sites, indicating that specific transcriptional regulatory complexes may be involved in determining RA response

Computationally designed libraries of fluorescent proteins evaluated by preservation and diversity of function

To determine which of seven library design algorithms best introduces new protein function without destroying it altogether, seven combinatorial libraries of green fluorescent protein variants were designed and synthesized. Each was evaluated by distributions of emission intensity and color compiled from measurements made in vivo. Additional comparisons were made with a library constructed by error-prone PCR. Among the designed libraries, fluorescent function was preserved for the greatest fraction of samples in a library designed by using a structure-based computational method developed and described here. A trend was observed toward greater diversity of color in designed libraries that better preserved fluorescence. Contrary to trends observed among libraries constructed by error-prone PCR, preservation of function was observed to increase with a library's average mutation level among the four libraries designed with structure-based computational methods